Light beam optical and control systems applied illumination fixtures are well known and the subject of extensive invention for millennia including historic navigational lighthouses and beacons. With the advent of the carbide and electric light sources, applications included railroad search lights, automobile headlights and interior lighting. Architectural and theatrical lighting borrowed from extensively from these technologies.
Construction of an inexpensive, compact, high efficiency, color and intensity control system with acceptable image optics has been a long-sought goal and the subject of extensive invention. These systems are almost exclusively concentric, radial, aligned and axially symmetric.
Representative examples include patents by Naujoks, U.S. Pat. No. 1,045,063; Centeno, U.S. Pat. No. 2,186,203; Colao, U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,810 Gulliksen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,241; Solomon, U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,182; Bornhorst, U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,107; Callahan, U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,227; Richardson, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,048,081, 6,142,652, 6,502,961; Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,683 and others. Construction of a compact, high resolution light beam modifier as disclosed by the prior art is expensive, inefficient or replete with visual artifacts.